Evening News Update Thursday 27 December

According to new figures published today, the city of Cannes has overtaken Antibes to become the second most populous city in the Alpes Maritimes.  The figures published by French statistics body INSEE provide data on the population of the Alpes Maritimes as of 1st January 2016. Nice remains the largest urban area the department.


Police in Puget-Théniers are asking for the public’s help in tracing a missing person. Chafik Taghouzi hasn’t been seen since leaving the house of an acquaintance in Saint Laurent-du-Var on December 13th.  His disappearance was reported to police in Puget-Théniers on the 22nd of December. He is 36 years old, of slim build, 1.75m tall, and has dark brown, medium length braided hair. At the time of his disappearance he was wearing a black leather jacket, an orange t-shirt and dark grey track trousers.


Police in St Tropez are searching for several individuals who broke into a jewellery store over the Christmas holidays. The Fred jewellery boutique, near the Place des Lices in the centre of St Tropez, was broken into in the early hours of yesterday morning. 


Mobile Operator Bouygues Telecom has been fined 250,000 euros by the French personal data protection authority, the CNIL, for a breach of customer data security. According to the CNIL, the breach concerned the security of contracts and invoices of two million customers. Bouygues Telecom said that no sensitive data had been exposed in the breach and it appeared that the data had not been used by anyone outside the company.

 

BUSINESS


A majority stake in Gatwick Airport is to be sold to French operator Vinci Airports for £2.9bn. Vinci will buy 50.01% of the UK's second-busiest airport. The other 49.99% will remain with current owners Global Infrastructure Partners. The deal follows Vinci's takeover of the portfolio of Airports Worldwide earlier this year, which included Belfast International and stakes in 12 airports across the United States.


The UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has reportedly said he has "very deep concerns" about Chinese firm Huawei being involved in upgrading the UK's mobile network. The comments came after some nations restricted use of the firm's products in 5G networks over security concerns. The UK says China is behind hackers targeting commercial secrets. Huawei denies any link to the Chinese state.


BAE Systems says it plans to recruit nearly 700 apprentices in the UK next year, an increase of almost a third on this year. The company cut 2,000 jobs in October 2017.

 

SPORT


Cricket….India have dominated day two of the third Test in Australia. They declared on 443-7 with seven overs remaining.  At the close of play, Australia were just getting underway with their first innings and were on 8 for no loss after 6 overs.


Football…Arsenal manager Unai Emery has apologised for kicking a bottle which hit a Brighton fan towards the end of yesterday’s Boxing Day match. Emery went to speak to the supporter immediately after the incident and again at full-time. The Football Association will reportedly look into the incident.

An Italian football supporter has died of his injuries after being knocked down by a van during violence before the Inter Milan match against Napoli. The clashes took place not far from Inter Milan's San Siro stadium. Four Napoli fans were injured and one of them was stabbed according to police.

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